HYANNIS — In 1965, there were three full-time firefighters who responded to 530 calls that year from the then-new Hyannis fire station.

Nearly 50 years later, there are 59 full-time personnel who work at the station on High School Road Extension. In 2010, they responded to 6,114 calls for service, according to Hyannis Fire District Commissioner Richard Gallagher, chairman of the district's building committee.

"You can see the difference between '65 and now," Gallagher said about the crowded and deteriorating 18,000-square-foot building.

Since that time not only has the department and call volume grown, but new requirements and codes have made much of the current fire station outdated, Gallagher said.

Now the fire district is taking its plan to build a new station on the road. Although the blueprints and cost are still a work in progress, fire district officials presented a tentative outline to the Greater Hyannis Civic Association on Tuesday night during the group's meeting at the Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority building on School Street.

The fire district bought three parcels of land surrounding the current station for more than $2.7 million in 2010. In 2011, district voters approved spending $675,000 for preliminary architectural, engineering and owner project manager services to plan the new station on the 3-acre campus that includes the current station's property.

The total cost of a new building is unknown, Gallagher said.

"Everybody is going to want to know what the cost and what the cost on the tax rate is going to be," he told the room filled with association members. "We don't know that number."

Design development, which is expected to be completed in the first few months of 2013, will provide general floor plans, elevations and a site plan for about 25 percent to 30 percent of the design, said project manager Jim Byrne of Construction Monitoring Services Inc. of Marlboro.

Two independent estimates will be done and reconciled before the building committee makes a recommendation about a project that the community might support, Byrne said.

Hyannis offers a host of challenges in designing an appropriate building, including an ocean terminal, airport, busy Main Street, mall and hospital, said Michael McKeon of the architectural firm, Kaestle Boos Associates.

Members of the civic association's board, while in agreement that a new station is needed, grilled the building committee, project manager and architects on how they will keep costs down.

Association treasurer Deb Krau said she pays about 27.5 percent of her taxes for fire and ambulance service and roughly 72.5 percent for everything else.

"How much do you think the residents of the village of Hyannis can afford?" Krau asked.

Once the design development phase is complete, the building committee will decide what it thinks district residents will support at a district meeting, McKeon said.

"If I were building a house, I would have a budget," said association executive board member Laura Cronin.

The development of a budget for the new station is a needs-driven design process, said the project's other architect, Robert Mitchell of Mitchell Associates Architects.

The existing building is rife with deficiencies, including problems with the heating and cooling systems, ventilation, water infiltration through the roof and energy efficiency, Mitchell said, adding that he does a lot of renovation and additions on fire stations.

"This is not a candidate for that," he said.

There are a lot of rumors about what will go into the new fire station and its eventual cost, Krau said, adding that she has heard that the new station will have a museum and the building will cost $30 million.

There are two antique fire trucks that will need to be protected, but the $30 million figure has never come up during the public meetings of the building committee, Gallagher said.

"I don't work on rumors," he said. "Some people may. It's dangerous."

The building committee and designers of the building will continue to hold public forums to provide information on cost estimates and other aspects of the project as they become available, he said.